1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to beds and more specifically, to a bed configured to oscillate in both a longitudinal and transverse direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A large portion of people complain that they have to lie down on a bed for a long time before they fall asleep; that they can not fall asleep again after they wake up during the night; or that they wake up early and can not fall asleep again in the early morning. According to statistics, one-fourth of the population suffers from insomnia; in adults over 76 year old, 29% of men and 37% of women have sleep problem. In addition, many people suffer from simple insomnia or other sleep problems caused by physical or mental diseases. Drugs used for insomnia have a certain limitation because of their side effects, which inhibit the action of the central nervous system for a certain period of time and can therefore affect a person's quality of life. They may also cause drug-dependence.
No one doubts that sleep is vitally important for human physical and mental health and therefore the sleep mechanism is an issue that is worth exploring and continues to be explored. Experiments involving lack of sleep suggest that sleep allows the body to rest and repair itself. Therefore, the invention of a new and effective hypnotherapy technology would be highly desirable.
The effect of some of the so-called hypnotherapies is questionable. One example is music hypnotherapy that relies on an aural stimulus, which only acts on the cochlear nerves and locally stimulates the cerebral cortex of the brain. Some special beds have been used in hospitals that have a special mattress and bed skeleton. However, the function of the bed is not for the treatment of insomnia but mainly for the prevention of bedsores and pneumonia in patients who are unconscious or who have difficulty changing their posture.
Traditional understanding of sleep in humans assumes that the quietness of the environment is an important factor. In conjunction with this assumption, is the belief that a generally steady sleep surface is also beneficial. However, this is an issue that merits further consideration, in fact it can be shown that a proper form and quantity of movement is an effective stimulation for promoting sleep. One example, which I call the cradle effect, is a child being rocked in a cradle or rocked by a parent in the parent's arms. Another example, which I call the trip effect, is when people fall asleep while traveling by carriage, car, ship or train. The third example is that sleepiness, likely to be caused by the motion of the car, is a major cause of serious accidents proved by traffic accident surveys (Department of Human Science, Loughborough University Tel: +44-1509-223091). In addition, people change position a few times before they lie down and try to sleep.
Vestibular organs including the utricle, the saccule and the semicircular canals are traditionally understood as balance sense organs that assist humans and animals in evaluating the position of the head relative to gravity and maintaining balance while carrying out normal activities. However, the vestibular organs are also sleep organs.
Based on study of sleep history, exquisite observation of human' life and continuously exploration of sleep mechanism, applicant thinks that sleep mechanism consists of two sub-mechanisms: the sleep initiation mechanism and the sleep maintenance mechanism. Sleep occurrence is a process of a consciousness state entering a sleep (we call none or very low level consciousness) state and is triggered by the sleep initiation mechanism. Sleep occurrence depends on conditions both from outside and inside of the body. That is, both the environment and some organs of the body control sleep initiation. As such, sleep occurrence is a conditioned reflex. Generally, the sleep maintenance mechanism is the natural, cerebral function program which is procedurally controlled by the brain although it is affected by conditions from inside and outside the body.
One aspect affecting sleep initiation is motion sensed by the body. The proper motion is a motion which simultaneously satisfies two conditions: (1) quality: causes continuous stimulation of vestibular organs, of which there are two forms: rhythmic motion and rhythm-less motion; (2) quantity: proper motion intensity which will not cause muscles, especially extremity muscles, to contract in an attempt to maintain body balance and excessive reaction of parasympathetic excitation. The proper motion gives appropriate stimulation to vestibular organs thereby promoting the occurrence of sleep.
Based the foregoing information, I have established a theory that the mechanism of sleep occurrence is a conditioned reflex controlled via the vestibular organs, which include the utricle, the saccule, and the semicircular canals, which are therefore sleep sense organs; and that the brainstem and basal forebrain form the sleep center. Proper motion causes the vestibular organs to send a sleep signal to the sleep center in the brainstem and the basal forebrain via the vestibular nerve; the neurons of the sleep center are activated and sleep onset is triggered.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a new bed that moves in such a manner to promote the sleep initiation mechanism and the sleep maintenance mechanism by proper stimulation of the vestibular organs.